Chapter 5. Verbs: Tense, Aspect, Voice and Mood

Types of verbs. Main verbs carry meaning; auxiliary (helping) verbs (be, have, do) and modal verbs (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would) add grammatical or attitudinal meaning. Verbs can be transitive (take an object) or intransitive [3][6].

Principal parts. Base form (walk), past simple (walked), past participle (walked), present participle (walking). Irregular verbs must be learned: go – went – gone, write – wrote – written, be – was/were – been.

Tenses and aspects

Form	Simple	Continuous (progressive)	Perfect	Perfect continuous
Present	She writes	She is writing	She has written	She has been writing
Past	She wrote	She was writing	She had written	She had been writing
Future	She will write	She will be writing	She will have written	She will have been writing

Uses

Present simple: habits and facts (Water boils at 100 °C at sea level).

Present continuous: actions in progress or temporary situations.

Present perfect: past actions with present relevance (I have finished).

Past simple: completed actions at a definite past time.

Future: expressed with will, be going to, or the present continuous for arrangements.

Voice. Active voice: the subject performs the action (The chef cooked the meal). Passive voice: the subject receives the action (The meal was cooked by the chef). The passive is useful when the doer is unknown or unimportant, but overuse can make writing vague [10].

Mood. Indicative (statements and questions), imperative (commands) and subjunctive (wishes, hypotheses, demands): If I were you…; I suggest that he leave.

Conditionals. Zero (If you heat ice, it melts), first (If it rains, we will stay), second (If it rained, we would stay), third (If it had rained, we would have stayed) [6].

Phrasal verbs combine a verb with a particle and often have idiomatic meanings: give up, look after, turn down [7].

Review: Name the tense and aspect of “She has been studying for two hours.” (Answer: present perfect continuous.)